Soham Museum opens up its collection for the town to see

Dan Barker

Soham Museum opened up its collection for the first time in four years at the weekend, with hundreds flocking to the event to learn about the town’s history.

The group of volunteers who run the museum showed off items based on the themes school days and childhood, farming, and feasts and fairs. Passing on the social history of the town, also on show were archeological specimens alongside father and son skating enthusiasts Clive and Tony Fletcher, exhibiting their local ice skating memorabilia.

Father and son skating enthusiasts Clive and Tony Fletcher with ice skates used by Norwegian speed skater Harold Hagen in the 1890s

Donna Martin, the chairman of the museum, said: “The weekend was brilliant. It was lovely to have so many young people and families come along and have a museum experience in Soham and talk to them about what we do.”

The museum’s collection ranges from Neolithic hand axes to 1960s fashion, with the volunteers currently only being able to show a fraction of it.

The museum, which is a charitable trust, doesn’t have a permanent exhibition space but is on the hunt for a location in the town.

“Everything you expect a museum collection we have, it’s just that we don’t have a museum to put it in,” said Donna.